February 12, 2025
World News Press
Benjamin Scott reporting
Gene Haldry, PhD. Director of Mars Project

As part of a continuing series of interviews with people listed by the President of the UFN as detail specialists on the Mars Project, this week we will be interviewing Dr. Haldry the director of the Mars Project.

S: Hello, Dr. Haldry, thank you for being here today.

H: My pleasure, Mr. Scott.
S: Please, call me Ben, sir. Now I’d like to get right into the meat of this story. There’s no real point in beating around the bush, we’re here to talk about the Mars project.

H: I certainly hope so, Ben.

S: Yes, well, how long have you been with the Mars project?

H: Since its inception.

S: and before that?

H: I was in college.

S: So you’re first job out of college was a secret government space project?

H: Well, no, not exactly. First of all, for me college ended when I received my PhD at the age of 32. At this point I had already been involved with NASA for several years. What else do you do with expertise in astrophysics?

S: Naturally, you make contact with foreign civilizations and keep it secret form your people for a decade.

H: Alright, it wasn’t that cut and dry. I never agreed, personally with the decision to keep the original Mars mission a secret. The 1 we did on our own. I thought it would have been great for the agency, for the mission, and for the world population to be working on such a project together. But I was only in charge of the supply shuttle in those days, so no one listened to me. But keeping first contact a secret until we were better prepared was a good idea. I don’t know that we needed to wait quite this long, but you know bureaucracy.

S: So you disagree with the government’s policy of secrecy?

H: Not enough to think it should be the focus of this discussion. I’ve been on spaceships that came here from other solar systems, and hung out with the natives. Don’t you want to talk about that? Ben?

S: Yes, about that, I understand that the whole reason we are able to colonize Mars outside of bubbles is because the Kentauran people terra-formed Mars for us. Can you explain for a layperson how they did this?

H: Yes, that was really quite impressive. We took 4 hydrogen bombs and dropped them inside the largest volcanoes on Mars; Ascraeus Mons, Olympus Mons, Hecates Tholus, and Elysium Mons. The crust contained most of the radiation, and the blast created the most fantastic eruptions. Not just from the volcanoes, but all over the crust there were these tremendous explosions of magma that leapt from the Martian surface. Lava jettisoned into the sky, some of it breaking through the thin atmosphere in a trail of glowing molten planet. The Kentauran began hollering and dancing around in celebration, wings beating in unison. The heat caused the polar caps to melt within an hour, sending tidal waves of water flooding across the surface, crashing into the lava flows and boiling into steam. The sky quickly filled with ash and dirt, trapping in the heat and moisture, and storms raged across the surface of Mars for 6 months.

Then it stopped. The skies cleared. We looked down from the space station and saw blue water and white clouds on the red surface of Mars.

S: Wow. You just blew my mind.

H: You should have been there.

S: Hydrogen bombs? You said most of the radiation was contained, what about the rest? Doesn’t that hang around for centuries?

H: First, no it doesn’t hang around for centuries. At the point of exposure it might hang around for a century. The radiation that does escape is mitigated by a number of factors including dispersal patterns and time. We have examined the planet with radiation detectors and no dangerous areas were found.

S: This is the method the Kentaurans use?

H: This is one method. We had Hydrogen bombs on hand, so that’s the plan we decided upon. There’s a certain poetry to being able to use a bomb to start life, don’t you think?

S: Yes I suppose. So is there any vegetation or animals on Mars now? And if so, where did it come from?

H: Yes! Actually another great story. I’m going to let Paula Grubel tell that story because she made it happen. But I will tell you that there is wildlife on Mars.

S: Well, that certainly is suspenseful. Sir, we have time for one more question. So, let me thank you for taking time to be here today.

H: My pleasure, Ben.

S: For my last question, I was wondering how the Mars Colony was going to be governed?

H: That will be decided by the colonists, Ben.

S: Thank you for your time sir. For WPN this has been Benjamin Scott with Dr. Gene Haldry. thank you, and good night.